


Painting Love

by neonstardust



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: A Dullahan Is Present: Heads Will Be Taken Off In A Friendly And Non-Lethal Way, Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Background TsukiHina - Freeform, Claws, Don't Let The Tags Fool You This Is Safe For Work, Dullahan Sugawara Koushi, HQ Monster Lovin Weekend, HQ Monster Lovin Weekend 2020, Half-Dragon Kageyama Tobio, Half-Sphinx Yachi Hitoka, Is This Platonic? Is This Romantic? The Answer Is Yes, Long Nail Solidarity, Monster Romance, Mutual Pining, Mutual Pining But They Don't Know That, Nail Polish, Team Bonding, Vampire Yamaguchi Tadashi, Yachi Hitoka-centric, Yamaguchi Tadashi Is Tired Of His Classmates All Being Obliviously In Love With Each Other, painting nails
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:47:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27339667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neonstardust/pseuds/neonstardust
Summary: Yachi has never been all that interested in beauty practices like makeup or pedicures, but if this is what happens when she brings nail polish to school, she might need to start bringing in lipstick, too.In which, Yachi wants to be helpful to Kageyama, and Kageyama is really awkward at asking to hold hands.
Relationships: Kageyama Tobio & Yachi Hitoka, Kageyama Tobio/Yachi Hitoka
Comments: 7
Kudos: 53
Collections: An Asexual's Guide to Monster Lovin Weekend: Because Maybe Hot Monsters want to be Called Beautiful Monsters Just One Time





	Painting Love

**Author's Note:**

> HQ Monster Lovin’ Weekend - Prompt: Claws

_Pop_!

Yachi screams. Whipping around, she finds she’s not the only one startled by the noise. Yamaguchi clutches his chest. Across the court, Asahi clings to Daichi like he’s about to be attacked.

Off to the side, Hinata falls dramatically to his knees. “You killed her,” he wails.

“Shut up.” Kageyama glares first at him then at the flattened volleyball in his hands. He tries to hit Hinata with it, but it tangles around his claws, thumping pathetically to the floor.

Sugawara holds his chin in his hand. “Well, this explains the ball I found in the trash last week.”

Facing him, Kageyama bows. “I apologize. I’ll be more careful.”

Just like that, practice resumes. Sugawara heads off to practices digs with the second years. Hinata buzzes around Tsukishima asking for blocking tips. Kiyoko treats Nishinoya for a skinned elbow—the second one this evening—and Yachi suspects they are not as accidental as he claims.

Kageyama stands off to the side.

Setting down the box of freshly filled water bottles, Yachi edges closer to him. He’s holding a volleyball as gentle as he would a baby, but his claws still sink into the fabric, leaving behind deep score marks. He scowls.

Yachi glances at the other players. Hinata and Tsukishima are humans. Standing beside them makes Yamaguchi look extra pale, his vampire fangs showing prominently when he smiles. His nails are thin and needle sharp, but he keeps them a manageable length. When he hits the ball, it wobbles across the court, landing just out of Daichi and Asahi’s reach.

On the other side of the net, Sugawara executes a flawless set. He keeps his head off during games—a sight Yachi still can’t get used to. He said something about dullahans having better perception without their head in the way, but she hadn’t heard him at the time over the sound of her own screaming. While his nails grow in unnaturally sharp, he catches the ball with ease, his grasp no more harmful than Yamaguchi’s.

Yachi looks at Kageyama again. His claws are at least three times larger than anyone else here. Compared to Asahi with his blunt orc nails and Nishinoya with his retractable claws, it’s practically unfair. She’s surprised any volleyballs at all have survived his sets.

Kageyama catches her gaze. “Do you need something?”

“No,” she squeaks. “Uh…” Cautiously, she steps closer. She knows Kageyama isn’t dangerous, but his horns, branching from his head like the antlers of a stag, and his serrated teeth make him intimidating to approach all the same. “It’s just, I noticed…” Her gaze drops to his hands.

Realizing, he immediately tucks them behind his back. “It won’t interfere with my setting,” he states.

“Did something change?” she asks. Yachi didn’t pay particular attention to his claws before, but they seem more murderous than usual, if the popped volleyballs are anything to go off of.

He looks away. “My nail file broke.”

“Oh.” That seems like an easy enough fix.

As if sensing her thoughts, he explains, “I can’t use a regular file, and I don’t know where my sister buys them from.”

Yachi hums. That does complicate things. She wouldn’t even know where to begin to search for one. Half dragons are so rare; she hardly ever sees anything in stores for them. Looking online would be their best bet, but do they have time to wait for a package to ship? What if it has to be sent from overseas? What if it doesn’t arrive before their next game and Kageyama gets expelled for popping a ball in an official match?

“Oi.” Hinata bops a ball against Kageyama’s back. “You’re making Yachi-san over think things. Her head’s gonna explode.”

Yachi clutches her head. “Explode? No, no,” she says, but already she feels dizzy.

“I didn’t do anything,” Kageyama snaps. He throws the ball at Hinata’s face, but he ducks, sticking out his tongue at him.

It gives her time to take a few deep breathes and clear her mind. “Um,” she speaks up. “I know it’s probably not as good as a dragon nail file, but you can borrow mine, if you like.”

Self-consciously, she looks down at her own hands. Their bloodline has grown weak over the years. Yachi is nowhere near as strong as her mother, and neither of them carry the true sphinx features of her great grandmother. Her wings are short and flightless. While her legs have undeniably feline characteristics, the human genes are strong, weakening the claws of her feet and giving her nearly human hands.

“Ah, forget I said anything.” She bows her head in apology. Her claws are nowhere near on par with Kageyama’s, and that means her file won’t be strong enough either. “I’ll ask Takeda-sensei to order more volleyballs—”

“Can I use your nail file,” Kageyama asks. Face reddening, he adds, “Please.”

Yachi stills, dumbfounded. “Yes. I mean, it’s probably not going to work, but it’s in my bag.” She shifts her feet. “You don’t have to use it if you don’t want to.”

“I want to.” Kageyama inclines his head.

Feeling even more stunned than before, she nods, not sure what to say. Quickly, she runs to get her bag from the club room. It’s bad enough she’s wasting his time with a file that won’t work; she can’t keep him waiting, too.

She’ll take her whole backpack, she decides upon picking it up. That way, if Kageyama pretends to “forget” the entire situation, she can casually leave her bag in the corner of the gym without bringing it up again. They can forget the whole conversation ever happened, and she won’t have to fake her death and flee the country for causing such an embarrassing scene.

Her plans shatter the second she walks into the gym to find Kageyama waiting for her. “Oh!” She stumbles back. “Uh, here.” Ducking her head, she hurries to the bench and begins pulling things out, setting them aside, until she finds the file.

Hinata lounges across the other bench. “Wah, you have the same folder as my sister.” Climbing onto his knees, he holds up the folder to proudly display the two puppies on the cover. 

Kageyama pushes him off the bench. “Geh! Mean.” He kicks Kageyama’s shin.

Ignoring him, Kageyama sits down. 

Yachi giggles, her nerves calming little by little. She pulls the file out and hands it over to him. “I know it’s not much—”

“It’s perfect,” he says. Staring at it intensely, he flips it over in his hands. “How does it work?”

Hinata pokes Kageyama’s cheek. “Don’t call it perfect if you don’t even know how to work it.”

“Dumbass.” He smacks his hand away.

“How what works?” Yamaguchi asks. Plopping down beside Kageyama, he peels off his kneepads.

Yachi looks from him to her watch and back again. “Practice is over already?” she asks. “That was so quick.”

Kageyama scowls. Face darkening, he clenches the nail file tight. “Please teach me.” He thrusts it out toward her.

“Sure—”

“What’s this?” Tsukishima leers down his nose at him. “Has the king become so high and mighty he needs his servants to do his nails for him?”

A muscle works in Kageyama’s jaw. His eyes narrow, and he glares at Tsukishima with such a fierce intensity that Yachi’s nerves immediately skyrocket. What if they get into a fight? Yachi wouldn’t be able to live with herself if they broke each other’s arms and threw away their chance at reaching nationals all over her bad ideas.

“I-it’s not like that,” she blurts out. “I shouldn’t have offered. I overstepped.”

“You didn’t,” Kageyama says. Flipping the file around, he presses the wrong end of it against his nail, brows furrowed.

Yachi grabs his hands. “No! You’ll hurt yourself.”

“Sorry.” His face flushes.

“No, I’m the one who should apologize.” Gently taking the file from him, Yachi turns it around the right way. “It’s modelled after cat claws, you see. This loop here”—she positions it over his claw—“cuts the nail.” She struggles to pull the lever down. There’s more resistance than she’s used to—his claws are much stronger than it’s designed for. She tries harder, but the metal refuses to slice through it.

Cupping his other hand over hers, Kageyama helps her pull the lever down.

“Ah, it worked.” She smiles up at him. “Thank you.”

Kageyama mumbles something that might be “You’re welcome” or might be a dragon curse. Not looking at her, he holds up the next claw for her to cut.

Yachi frowns. “I don’t think I’m strong enough,” she says, but even still, she lines up the clippers and pulls the lever the best that she can.

Hinata leans over her shoulder to watch. “That looks nothing like human nail clippers.”

“Claws are thicker,” she reminds him. When the lever gets stuck again, Kageyama helps her pull it the rest of the way, and she moves on to the next claw.

“Oh, hey.” Hinata picks up a bottle of nail polish that spilled out of her bag in her earlier search. “I didn’t know you wore this stuff, Yachi-san.”

She hums. “It helps prevent them from chipping. I normally use clear polish, but I tried some pink out this week.”

“Chipping?” Yamaguchi asks. He looks down as his own nails, self-consciously curling his fingers to hide them.

“You can use my nail polish, Yamaguchi-kun.” She moves to the last claw. “I have more at home,” she adds.

“I don’t know about that...” He scratches at his cheek.

“Go for it,” Hinata says. “It could make your serves better! We can practice tosses.” Eyes glittering, he jumps to his feet. “If you put it on now, it’ll be dry by the time I get the net back up.”

Tsukishima snorts. “Like you know anything about nail polish.”

Hinata blinks. His expression goes blank. Without breaking eye contact, he lifts his foot onto the bench and pulls off his sneaker, followed by his sock. Bright orange nail polish colors his toenails. Tiny black crows have been painted on top, and one of them holds a volleyball made from a stick-on rhinestone.

Mumbling under his breath, Tsukishima looks away.

“Those are really well done,” Yachi says. The crow wings even have little ridges for feathers.

“Thanks!” He beams. Chest puffing out with pride, he says, “My sister’s really talented, isn’t she?”

Yachi must agree. She’s still learning not to get polish on her cuticles whenever she tries to paint the claws on her right hand. She doubts she could ever do anything as nice as Natsu can.

“Paint mine,” Kageyama says suddenly.

“Huh?” She nearly drops the file. “But...” Yachi looks at his hands, tracing her thumbs over his claws. She doesn’t doubt for a second that they could cut through metal effortlessly. Half dragons don’t need to worry about minor things like chipping or breaking nails.

She looks up, and it hits her just how close they are. She can see little flecks of silver in his eyes, like beams of moonlight on the ocean. Their knees are brushing together. Face heating up, she pulls away, but her hands feel even hotter where they were holding Kageyama’s than the blush burning across her cheeks.

Sneakers squeak, and Sugawara joins them, his head tucked beneath his arm like a volleyball. “What’re you guys doing?”

“Yachi-san’s painting our nails,” Hinata says.

“What?” she squeaks.

Daichi comes over, frowning. “You need to go home before it’s too dark out.”

“Wait.” Sugawara holds up his hand. “What colors do you have?”

“Suga, no.”

“Suga, yes.” He sits on the floor, settling his head back on his neck where it belongs. “Do you have light blue?” Looking at Kageyama, he winks and says, “I can’t let my kouhai hog all of the secret setting improvement tips, ya’ know.”

Daichi pinches the bridge of his nose. “Suga.”

Stifling a giggle behind her hand, Yachi passes him the nail polish. Not a second later, Daichi is hauling him to his feet, pushing him towards the door.

“Now then,” she says. Keeping a careful distance this time, she holds up the file side of the clippers. “This will grind out the rough edges.” She starts with Kageyama’s thumb. The sharp point of his claw has already been removed, so she works on rounding it out, forming a blunt, volleyball-approved curve.

Kageyama watches closely. His hands feel rough and calloused against hers, but he holds perfectly still, his touch as light as a feather when he helps her file one particularly stubborn claw.

“You’re good at this,” he murmurs. 

“I wouldn’t say that.” Yachi moves to his right hand. His skin is warm, and for a moment, she marvels at this size difference between his hand and her own. She wonders what it would be like to slot their fingers together. 

“So obvious,” Yamaguchi mumbles.

Yachi pulls back. Glancing at them, she finds Tsukishima reluctantly sitting on the floor. Hinata kneels before him, his tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth as he diligently paints Tsukishima’s nails a soft shade of green. “We aren’t setters,” Tsukishima complains, but a blush colors his cheeks.

She turns back to Kageyama, but for some reason, his face is even redder than Tsukishima’s. “Are you okay?” she asks.

Not making eye contact, he mutters, “I’m fine.”

“Hmm.” Carefully, she finishes filing his last claw. “There you go. All done,” she says. A spark of accomplishment blooms in her chest. For once, she was actually able to help Kageyama with something. 

He frowns, and it looks almost like he’s pouting. “What about that stuff?” He gestures toward the nail polish. 

“Oh, you can use it.” With the green and blue already in use, all she has left is pink and clear. She offers him the second with an encouraging smile. “It’s very simple to put on,” she says. “You just use the brush attached to the lid.”

Gaze intense, Kageyama looks at both bottles, weighing his options. Suddenly, his eyes light up, and he reaches past the clear one for the pink varnish. “Thanks.” His fingers brush clumsily against hers. 

“Oh, uh, no problem.” She busies herself with closing up the nail clippers and putting them away, along with her folders. Her face burns, far too warm, yet her hands feel cold now that she’s not holding Kageyama’s.

Under his breath, he says something that sounds vaguely like, “My nails will match with Yachi-san.”

She chokes. “Come again?”

“Please teach me how to use nail polish,” he says quickly.

Yachi blinks. “Huh?”

Tsukishima snickers. Beside him, Yamaguchi mumbles something that she doesn’t catch, but it makes her face heat up even more, nonetheless. “Huh?” she repeats. 

Sighing, Kageyama opens the bottle himself. He holds the brush with surprising skill, and he paints his thumbnail with clean, even strokes.

Yachi’s eyes widen.

“What?” Hinata crawls up over Kageyama’s shoulder for a closer look, his eyebrows lifting higher and higher as Kageyama effortless paints the claws of his left hand.

Elbowing him away, Kageyama holds out the bottle. “Please teach me to do the right hand,” he says.

She barely notices he’s talking to her. She’s still staring at his claws, at the perfect precision he used to apply the varnish. There’s not so much as a dab of polish on his cuticles. He even capped off each nail. Yachi stares at him in disbelief. “I... think you should be teaching me,” she says, her shoulders slumping.

Excitement glows in his eyes like when Hinata asks for another round of tosses. Almost reverently, he takes Yachi’s hand in his. “Start with the middle,” he says. Dipping the brush in the polish, he paints gently along her first claw. “Do the sides next to even it out and fill in the gaps.” He sweeps the brush along the edge to cap it off.

Tsukishima glances from her nails to his. “Looks like the king is better than Hinata at receives _and_ this,” he teases.

Hinata glares. Snatching Tsukishima’s hand, he starts painting again, mumbling, “I won’t lose.”

Yamaguchi looks between the four of them nervously. “What if you mess up?”

“Dip an eyeliner brush in acetone to remove it,” Kageyama says like it’s common knowledge.

The distinct feeling that Kageyama has done this before comes to her, but then he leans closer, blowing delicately on her nails to help them dry, blasting all of her thoughts out of her head and scattering them across the floor. She doesn’t hear whatever joke Tsukishima makes. She can’t even hear her own brain over the sound of blood rushing through her ears.

Kageyama looks up at her. A tiny smile curls his lips, genuine and sweet, and her heart does a backflip in her chest.

Yamaguchi covers his eyes with his hand like he can’t bear to watch this. “So obvious.”

She’s going to combust. Her face is hot enough to roast marshmallows on. Kageyama is so close, she’s sure he can feel the heat.

His hands are still holding hers, but if he notices her pulse racing through her fingertips, he doesn’t show it. Instead, he looks over her claws for imperfections. “It won’t last,” he says. “I painted over old polish.” Nodding to himself, he declares, “I’ll re-paint them next week.”

If her head gets any lighter, she’s going to faint. With a blush burning across her cheeks, scorching to her ears, she might just start floating like a hot air balloon. She needs to breathe. She needs the AED. She needs an anti-butterflies-in-the-stomach vaccination posthaste. A shot to protect her from warm, sapphire eyes wouldn’t hurt either right now.

She looks around frantically for help. To her left, Tsukishima holds the nail polish above his head while Hinata jumps for it. On her right, Yamaguchi types into Google “what to do when your classmates are obliviously crushing on each other.”

Kageyama tilts his head. “You okay?”

“Blue,” she blurts out. “I mean, next week. No, wait! I mean, I’ll paint yours blue.” She covers her face with her hands. Maybe she should just change schools and flee the country at this point. 

Taking a deep breath, she risks peeking through her fingers. A rosy pink colors Kageyama’s cheeks, and he struggles to hide a wobbly smile behind his hand. Catching her gaze, he looks away quickly and mumbles, “I’d like that.”

A smile of her own breaks free. “Me, too,” she says. The heat leaves her face, and instead, a warm, fuzzy feeling ignites in her chest. “I’d like that a lot.”


End file.
